This night is too near a solstice
For a crouching, hallowed cool and
Evening settles like a crackling season
Here I read poems about aged ladders
Loitering beside trees without fruit
Here we sidle up to fierce loneliness
He is a surviving kind of friend
Who only rattles his bars as
Midnight sprints unaccompanied past
And a soundless, subzero moon reminds me
Meticulous death is glorious art
He isn't jarring, nor perverse any longer
He holds my hand, invisible as we
Cross the God-loving street, and I am
Sweating underneath the November snow
And this, this eating thing
Digesting the remains of my day
Reels me in with a distorted magnetism
The ink on my shoulder is a
Vomitous misrepresentation of a
Life spoiled, too ripe in the sun
But in this cage the ultraviolet leaves me
And a bundled childhood is my shield
And the mime's temperature and mine are
A similar number, plummeting in disrepair
In that room where windows leak dollars
And love festers, just the terminal choice I made
29 July 2009
Shadow of a Decade
I have only twelve years behind me
These slats leave banded marks on my
thighs with their rubber claws
the card is tucked under my strap
Mint-green, damp, curling blind
The heat is harassing me and
he is not here to assauge me
so I dive, passably, and pull
half the length of the pool
I cannot focus in motion
My adrenaline roars in the
silent mosaic arena
I move symmetrically but
my knee pops like a bad habit
I spot him on land, yelling as I
bob and his flushed lips move and
he mimes with phantom palms and
Signals love from across the sea
He shouts inaudible rules
But I know them already
he is on his knees and
swathing my brand new body and
tadpole mind, effortlessly
I am the coyest, but I live to follow
him barefoot down rusting stairs
buckets in our virgin hands
I will misplace him without intention
My spun-out jewel in the maiden grass
26 July 2009
These slats leave banded marks on my
thighs with their rubber claws
the card is tucked under my strap
Mint-green, damp, curling blind
The heat is harassing me and
he is not here to assauge me
so I dive, passably, and pull
half the length of the pool
I cannot focus in motion
My adrenaline roars in the
silent mosaic arena
I move symmetrically but
my knee pops like a bad habit
I spot him on land, yelling as I
bob and his flushed lips move and
he mimes with phantom palms and
Signals love from across the sea
He shouts inaudible rules
But I know them already
he is on his knees and
swathing my brand new body and
tadpole mind, effortlessly
I am the coyest, but I live to follow
him barefoot down rusting stairs
buckets in our virgin hands
I will misplace him without intention
My spun-out jewel in the maiden grass
26 July 2009
Fantastical Exodus
Only clocks know what time it is
He calls out, retreating
into noxious fog where
she can swaddle him
tightly in the sway
of her ambrosial lips
His mind, in aquatic paradise
beats upward and unto itself
he chews thoughtfully
a basted coward with
one free hand
He can see the aquifer
internal wellspring of
her hatelessness
funded by nothing difficult, by
avoidance of all unhappiness
Exeunt, madam
leave this dusty scene in a
push-broom pile and
do as the man advised-
say adieu
26 July 2009
He calls out, retreating
into noxious fog where
she can swaddle him
tightly in the sway
of her ambrosial lips
His mind, in aquatic paradise
beats upward and unto itself
he chews thoughtfully
a basted coward with
one free hand
He can see the aquifer
internal wellspring of
her hatelessness
funded by nothing difficult, by
avoidance of all unhappiness
Exeunt, madam
leave this dusty scene in a
push-broom pile and
do as the man advised-
say adieu
26 July 2009
Tell Me Straight
We who choose with stinging eyes
In haze of wonder compromise
Without intent to patronize
Or discount wounds of any size
Feel base-compelled to fraternize
And in deep joy we colonize
As carpet under our feet lies
To sweep us up to weeping skies
They have been endearing spies
They've seen us legitimize
A day that's neither long nor wise.
The Sun in tawny throne he cries
As this, built in our shared heart, dies
Its ling'ring smoke to ceiling flies
And lagging pulse identifies
The time for rest, to exhale sighs
Alone and warm I nurse my eyes
7/16/2009
In haze of wonder compromise
Without intent to patronize
Or discount wounds of any size
Feel base-compelled to fraternize
And in deep joy we colonize
As carpet under our feet lies
To sweep us up to weeping skies
They have been endearing spies
They've seen us legitimize
A day that's neither long nor wise.
The Sun in tawny throne he cries
As this, built in our shared heart, dies
Its ling'ring smoke to ceiling flies
And lagging pulse identifies
The time for rest, to exhale sighs
Alone and warm I nurse my eyes
7/16/2009
Her House of Dust
She glides on molting wings
safe and sixteen, in what
should be a dusty field of
concord, flame and frivolity but
instead the meat of her heart is
rent from her ribcage and
slapped on the platter in her
irrational, shaking hands and
she carries it to the utilitarian
platform to be squeaked at by
pitying mice and those sorry
familiar pupils gape like sticky tar in
vacant buckets and spook her
a bucking, glossy mare in
the crosshairs of distress
she is bleeding at the gums
she thrashes in citron clouds
she prudently blames the moon
for her impending madness
15 July 2009
safe and sixteen, in what
should be a dusty field of
concord, flame and frivolity but
instead the meat of her heart is
rent from her ribcage and
slapped on the platter in her
irrational, shaking hands and
she carries it to the utilitarian
platform to be squeaked at by
pitying mice and those sorry
familiar pupils gape like sticky tar in
vacant buckets and spook her
a bucking, glossy mare in
the crosshairs of distress
she is bleeding at the gums
she thrashes in citron clouds
she prudently blames the moon
for her impending madness
15 July 2009
A Deceptive Tonic
If you cannot stomach it
it is an acquired taste after
all chartreuse and elevating and
admittedly positive, I suppose you
will abandon the whole sea
glass bottle to roll under the
clawfoot bed in which I drown and
in that echoing cove, I have to
clench my eyes and curl my
limbs and be unable yet to
wrap my mind around the
weapon of our happiness, hoarded
under my mattress and now just a
dirty clattering beneath me
14 July 2009
it is an acquired taste after
all chartreuse and elevating and
admittedly positive, I suppose you
will abandon the whole sea
glass bottle to roll under the
clawfoot bed in which I drown and
in that echoing cove, I have to
clench my eyes and curl my
limbs and be unable yet to
wrap my mind around the
weapon of our happiness, hoarded
under my mattress and now just a
dirty clattering beneath me
14 July 2009
West Eighth Avenue
He said exactly what he did not mean
He must love who that girl loves-
Woman loves
With a pentatonic heaviness
Her heedless life is set alight by
White-hot match on scraping
Bloody brick detonating a
Sulphuric explosion
Lifted to a fragile cigarette
Gloves damp and fingernails eaten
Flame is hurriedly ingested and
Vanquished by crooked
Wanting lips then
Flicked, tumbling, a
Blackened stump or
Amputated limb into the
Gluttonous jaws of some gutter
The smoker is sunsoaked at midnight
Aiming precisely for the
Heart of disaster, her nightmares
Screeching like an asymmetrical quarter
Spinning in the polished
Bowl of her calcified skull
Your truest love can slowly kill you
13 July 2009
He must love who that girl loves-
Woman loves
With a pentatonic heaviness
Her heedless life is set alight by
White-hot match on scraping
Bloody brick detonating a
Sulphuric explosion
Lifted to a fragile cigarette
Gloves damp and fingernails eaten
Flame is hurriedly ingested and
Vanquished by crooked
Wanting lips then
Flicked, tumbling, a
Blackened stump or
Amputated limb into the
Gluttonous jaws of some gutter
The smoker is sunsoaked at midnight
Aiming precisely for the
Heart of disaster, her nightmares
Screeching like an asymmetrical quarter
Spinning in the polished
Bowl of her calcified skull
Your truest love can slowly kill you
13 July 2009
On My Return
In stippled frost, a disk of
Moon is scratched
My city of black and white, of ink and air
True love of my quick-spending days
I will long for you until this
Orb recedes to outline
A line drawing of the fair desert
Frail in my bifocal lens
And I ask myself what home is
If, in space and time, it is
Living under the glass of my watch
Washing the feet of my friends
Or instead, where I spin love
Master potter in molting rooms with
Sticky tile, where we
Bleed our belief in indigo
Water and clay melt in my grip
Round us leaving mineral residue
Teaching me strength, eyes on the ball
Focusing my tone and
Tightening like a wire
Strung from peak to peak, diving
Noiselessly, ears cupping the wind-
Life is a field without a fence.
3 July 2009
Moon is scratched
My city of black and white, of ink and air
True love of my quick-spending days
I will long for you until this
Orb recedes to outline
A line drawing of the fair desert
Frail in my bifocal lens
And I ask myself what home is
If, in space and time, it is
Living under the glass of my watch
Washing the feet of my friends
Or instead, where I spin love
Master potter in molting rooms with
Sticky tile, where we
Bleed our belief in indigo
Water and clay melt in my grip
Round us leaving mineral residue
Teaching me strength, eyes on the ball
Focusing my tone and
Tightening like a wire
Strung from peak to peak, diving
Noiselessly, ears cupping the wind-
Life is a field without a fence.
3 July 2009
Memory the Voyeur
The facts have been
Broadly suppressed
Rumbling, ignored
Under the veranda
Under four feet swaying
In the semi-night
Owning, fluently, the
Adolescent city they see
Augmenting like a strobe
Pouring admissions of error
And the beast is there
Hidden from his view
And she knows
The pachyderm’s rotting
Shell is now burnt
Flaking in sheets like ash
His jaundiced eye
Laced with trails of red
Sees effortlessly through the
Slats smeared with varnish
Howling in cricket darkness
He who does not require
Breath to thrive, instead
Enters her tissue with
Icy bomb in teeth, and she
The stalked and stalker
Hides behind a western shade
Consents with shallow breath
Forging conviction in the
Treachery of his unsolicited gaze
3 July 2009
Broadly suppressed
Rumbling, ignored
Under the veranda
Under four feet swaying
In the semi-night
Owning, fluently, the
Adolescent city they see
Augmenting like a strobe
Pouring admissions of error
And the beast is there
Hidden from his view
And she knows
The pachyderm’s rotting
Shell is now burnt
Flaking in sheets like ash
His jaundiced eye
Laced with trails of red
Sees effortlessly through the
Slats smeared with varnish
Howling in cricket darkness
He who does not require
Breath to thrive, instead
Enters her tissue with
Icy bomb in teeth, and she
The stalked and stalker
Hides behind a western shade
Consents with shallow breath
Forging conviction in the
Treachery of his unsolicited gaze
3 July 2009
The Brazen Desert
With a sieve in her temple
snugly seated in crook of
cactus arm, her green rubber
skin is neatly parted by
sleekest blade of rapier
for the exorbitant display and
subsequent collection of
pulp glistening like coral
She is contained in clouds
smeared dirty by a racing
breeze and swirling hips.
This day may never end, an
era of conjoined
tractor afternoons and
dawns swooping crazed like
bats under the bridge
of an undersatisfied soul.
And now we have glossed over
the prickliest of spines
genetically fated to puncture
your olive skin and mine
waxen and vegetative.
I am engorged on the juice of
my forefathers, tuning out the
snarl of cicadas, the
whitest that noise can offer
yelping at the cumuli for
relief
The needles click, conversationally
knitting a garment of faith
burrowing like a microscopic weasel
slurping pureed flesh, organizing on the
platform or assumption that
hibernation will be permitted to continue
until we reach a streetlamp and
The peeled
The pink
The most backward crashing gate
The official departure of heat’s opposition
28 June 2009
snugly seated in crook of
cactus arm, her green rubber
skin is neatly parted by
sleekest blade of rapier
for the exorbitant display and
subsequent collection of
pulp glistening like coral
She is contained in clouds
smeared dirty by a racing
breeze and swirling hips.
This day may never end, an
era of conjoined
tractor afternoons and
dawns swooping crazed like
bats under the bridge
of an undersatisfied soul.
And now we have glossed over
the prickliest of spines
genetically fated to puncture
your olive skin and mine
waxen and vegetative.
I am engorged on the juice of
my forefathers, tuning out the
snarl of cicadas, the
whitest that noise can offer
yelping at the cumuli for
relief
The needles click, conversationally
knitting a garment of faith
burrowing like a microscopic weasel
slurping pureed flesh, organizing on the
platform or assumption that
hibernation will be permitted to continue
until we reach a streetlamp and
The peeled
The pink
The most backward crashing gate
The official departure of heat’s opposition
28 June 2009
At The Top
In his immaculate foresight this
Tender and precise father of lies
Renovates our temple of stone-love
Dragging weight from the
Quarry of the enemy’s victory
Slaughtering each tree on the rock
His armor, hammered copper
A signal to the gods he
Does not trust
Whom he toils to
Eradicate with his
Practiced muscle
Complex ferocity
His cistern considered a
Noble place of death
For a felon with
Sturdy chains on his
Sinewy soul
23 June 2009
Tender and precise father of lies
Renovates our temple of stone-love
Dragging weight from the
Quarry of the enemy’s victory
Slaughtering each tree on the rock
His armor, hammered copper
A signal to the gods he
Does not trust
Whom he toils to
Eradicate with his
Practiced muscle
Complex ferocity
His cistern considered a
Noble place of death
For a felon with
Sturdy chains on his
Sinewy soul
23 June 2009
Electric Beast
She is the stubborn
Machine that roars
Rushing the corner along the wall
Tugging at all fraying sockets
Her sphere bounded by
A short length of wire
Wrapped in rubber
Used to hypothetically hang
One’s proverbial self by the neck
A mechanical wonder
Jittering without fuel or fright
The raging beast gored her
Tusks of copper oozing white and
Teal after a year of rain
23 June 2009
Machine that roars
Rushing the corner along the wall
Tugging at all fraying sockets
Her sphere bounded by
A short length of wire
Wrapped in rubber
Used to hypothetically hang
One’s proverbial self by the neck
A mechanical wonder
Jittering without fuel or fright
The raging beast gored her
Tusks of copper oozing white and
Teal after a year of rain
23 June 2009
A Singular Morning
In the polished pane of
A dawn without ripples
Her eyelids roll , saucily
Airily dreamwards, skimming
Sweetest cream and
Painting the chicory sky
And the garden’s
Every cobalt lattice
With love born in a
Common, heroic moment
Refined with
Godless fervor and
With ravaged soles and
Wobbling extremities
Set to fly.
11 June 2009
A dawn without ripples
Her eyelids roll , saucily
Airily dreamwards, skimming
Sweetest cream and
Painting the chicory sky
And the garden’s
Every cobalt lattice
With love born in a
Common, heroic moment
Refined with
Godless fervor and
With ravaged soles and
Wobbling extremities
Set to fly.
11 June 2009
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